250
07.17.09 - 08:08pm
“We’re a tiny company. We’re 250 people and we’re competing with Apple, Microsoft, [and] Google.”
- John Lilly
You know, I’d heard the above statement made in a bunch of different ways, but never quite in that order and so it never had the impact it did when put just so. Two hundred and fifty people, that’s it. That’s Mozilla Corporation. We might as well be Spartan’s with the kind of odds we’re up against, but the atmosphere here just never, ever portrays that. And I don’t mean that in some arrogant way, but it’s kind of crazy that we’re so brazen. I mean, we’re confident of course because we’re winning, and so that’s not too crazy, but I guess the crazy part is just that; how disparate the circumstances are from the odds. It’s crazy that we exist almost. It’s crazy that we’ve been able to leverage the efforts of 250 people and a few thousand volunteers against something that’s so big and dominant and has the resources it does — and win. That we made something, all of us, something good enough, something people care about enough to go out of their way to get. Think about that for a second. How often does anyone go out of their way for anything, really, let alone a web browser? And a lot of you reading this will be doing so from Internet Explorer, or Safari, and a few of you from Chrome or Opera, but that just illustrates my point so beautifully. You don’t need us to log in to your banking website, there isn’t a blog out there that works only with Firefox, and Google and Facebook work just fine in whatever browser came with your computer. There’s no reason to get and use Firefox other than the reason you, as an individual, come up with to do so. It’s a personal choice, and one that nearing 25% of Internet users have made in which they declared that, yes, actually, Firefox is worth the trouble. And that’s just amazing, to me.
Well, of course Firefox is worth the trouble!!! It’s always changing for the better, you’re always aware of issues and try to fix them as soon as you can. As soon as you finish one release you’re already working for the next. It gives me the amazing feeling it’s a live browser, surely the best ever!!!
The 300-50… This is MOZILLAAAAAAA!
I agree with Gabriela, you just feel so connected and secured with Firefox and is much better than any other browser, especially Internet Explorer. The FF team just keeps coming out with updates that solves all my problems, and I’m surprised they keep finding any.
The web is definitely better with Firefox, and that is why I went out of my way for it. I recommend everyone else to do the same.
I think it’s a testament to the contributions of the greater Mozilla community of volunteers.
Its an even more interesting statement when you ask why that market would have looked like without Firefox…
* Vista ships with IE6.1, basically a few bug fixes and propriatory HTML extensions. Still no support for alpha blending.
* Safari available on Mac only
* Chrome not even written
Only speculation of course, but it does make you think.
Mozilla and the Firefox team have done great work with speed and compatibility as well as so to speak opened the door easily allowing for add-ons something Apple and Google didn’t try and something Microsoft tr yd but didn’t seceded as well as Mozilla did the attempted to open the door to extinctions from what I understand there add-on process is much harder on the extension developer and there for only partially opening the door now with Mozilla Labs JetPack they have opened the door as far as I can see it going for a while. Mozilla has given us a chance to make it feel more like home. In a seance Chrome, Safari, and IE are empty houses. But Firefox starts there but then you can add things a personal weather center like ForcastFox and change the wall paper with themes so in a sense Mozilla gives you an internet home and lets you make it yours. They are also the repair men working on your home when it breaks when they make it better and the best part is they give this great extensibility for FREE. Not to mention they also give this great speed. I would like to say thank you Mozilla.
Sorry for the bad spelling.
I guess it depends how you count. Yes, Mozilla employs 250 people, but we couldn’t do what we do without the tens of thousands of contributors who volunteer their time and work and skills. Without them we wouldn’t have even a fraction of the alpha and beta testing we have, there would be no MDC, no SUMO, no Spread Firefox, no Community Store, no MozCamps. We wouldn’t have the thousands of extensions and themes that make Firefox the customization powerhouse it is. We wouldn’t have 75 localizations.
So, while saying “we’re 250 battling against three enormous armies” sounds very romantic, it’s not exactly true.
We have a pretty massive army of our own, driven by a genuine belief in and passion for our cause. And we would not exist without them.